Re: The Daily Mail vs Everyone

And for people who spend their wretched lives moaning about 'the nanny state',

Also, does it seem to our older members that we're living in far less of a 'nanny state' than we were 30 or 40 years ago? When I think of the "public information films" I saw on TV in my youth (I was born in 1962, so that would probably be the early 70s), they seemed laughably patronizing and paternalistic compared to anything we see these days.

That is certainly true, though I (born 1956) don't remember anyone taking them particularly seriously. They were just another manifestation of the patronising attitude that is illustrated by the attitude 'doctor knows best' - an attitude still held by many over about 65, which is surprising in the light of the credulousness of so many DM readers over the DM's perennial ridiculous health scares. What certainly is true, I think, is that the deferential attitude that so many people automatically had then towards authority in any form - teachers, doctors, the police, anyone in uniform, the council, the government - has gone; so maybe it is that Authority *is* less patronising, but at the same time people in general are less tolerant of being patronised, so they see it as unacceptable heavyhandedness? Actually this is getting towards the realms of socialism, surely? <washes mouth out with soap, having just mentioned what is a very dirty word in Mail-land>

Millions of British Airways passengers are facing Easter holiday chaos after militant union leaders announced a 'cynical' series of crippling strikes.

Labour:

Quote:

Gordon Brown - who failed to condemn the walkouts - was under growing pressure over his links to the unions that bankroll the Labour Party.

Capitalism:

Quote:

Rival firms were also accused of profiteering as they hiked prices on the back of the strike announcement... [Heathrow to New York] tickets were around £339 return but have increased to as much as £550.

Anyone who dares to tread on the toes of the Mail's beloved 'families':

Quote:

The strikes appear deliberately timed to cause maximum misery for families, and chief executive Willie Walsh accused the union of trying to 'destroy' his airline.

Travel firms point out the action will hit the start and finish of the Easter holidays, principally the weekend before Easter, when many start their breaks, and an earlier weekend when tens of thousands have booked cheaper flights...

Further strikes are planned from April 14 if the dispute over pay cuts and changes to crewing levels remains unresolved.

They would affect up to five days of school holidays in many areas of Britain, threatening to leave families stranded away from home.

I am actually quite pleased after that bit. While millions of families will rot away in places like Harrogate, Reading, Macclesfield and Guildford because they cannot get away for their beloved Easter break, I, and many other single people, will be able to travel unimpeded anywhere around the globe using Star Trek style transporter technology.

Ah, but they're not proper matrons, ie Hattie Jacques clones using a 1950s rule-by-terror management style. They are PENPUSHERS (note the correct DM terminology there). If a matron hasn't got a commanding bosom, a gimlet stare and a nasty line in bullying of subordinates, she can forget it in Mail Land. (I didn't even bother writing 'he or she' there for fairly obvious reasons.)

There's been so many of these articles recently I find them absolutely infuriating. Let me start by explaining that I am Scottish, but by no means a Scottish nationalist, and probably one of the least patriotic people you could ever meet. That these articles are able to rile me up so much speaks volumes about how nasty they are.

Throughout the election, there's been loads of these pieces about Scotland/Wales/N England/Ireland holding the rest of the UK to ransom (because, apparently, we don't share the home counties/rural England's love of the Tories). And now, apparently everyone who doesn't live in the South of England doesn't live in the real world, and is an immigrant/welfare leach! He even compares parts of Scotland to Soviet Russia! How does this crap pass for serious political analysis?! It's a total disgrace.

Indeed. I made a comment, but for some reason the Mail's moderators seem a bit twitchy over the last couple of days. Not too hopeful. Not so subtle use of of lovely clean mail reader pub and dirty socialist garage pics. Look how those benefits scroungers live compared to us!

Two tribes Immigrants Public workers and benefit scroungers against the minority law abiding tax payers.- jan, somerset, 08/5/2010 10:48

This is a good one though:

Quote:

The South of England is indebted to the working people and industrialists that created the wealth of the country. King coal, ship building, iron works, you name it, all fed the growth of Britain over three hundred years. Wales, Scotland, North of England, Northern Ireland, all played a part.

The rug was pulled from beneath the feet, with nothing more than an "on your bike", and no acknowledgment of this debt from a Conservative heirachy of 30 years ago. It had no grasp on the history of this nation. Why does it hold onto the Union? Scottish oil. When that dries up it'll be England for the English (well, in the south and in the countryside) and the little Englanders will sit back and yearn for the return of Wogan, the birch and Margaret Thatcher. Don't worry, the rst of us will not shed any tears for you, either...it's grim down south.- Kurt Schwitters, Kendal UK, 08/5/2010 11:16

_________________'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'

Would I manage that longed-for effect of making dyed-in-the-wool Mailites spontaneously combust if I pointed out that shifting the border from north of Carlisle to somewhere south of Manchester is analogous to breaking up the Soviet Union?

Thought I'd resurrect this old thread as the name of it is rather appropriate for my following post.

As the Mail do indeed seem to be anti-everything in Britain (and hate everything about living here too), I thought they might be interested in this link.

An interesting chart of the world's best countries to live in based on various different criteria, showing one hundred countries in order (the list has a tendency to jump around a bit when you try to click on a country, but it's worth a go):

That McKinstry thing is unbelievable. The reason more people work for the state in some areas is that it makes sense to locate public services in places with a supply of cheap labour. One might think this would appeal to a low tax man like him.